


Four People Who Never Fed Steve Rogers a Sandwich (and Two Who Did)

by misura



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Food, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-20
Updated: 2011-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-27 22:24:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/300695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The number of people willing to feed Captain America is a bit disappointing, really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Four People Who Never Fed Steve Rogers a Sandwich (and Two Who Did)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sheafrotherdon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheafrotherdon/gifts).



.01 _Bucky Barnes_

"No, no - I'm fine," Steve insists, and Bucky wants to hug him before calling him a liar; from Steve's pale face and still shaking hands, it's rather obvious that Steve's most definitely _not_ fine.

"Want to go again, then?" he jokes, before recalling that this is _Steve_ he's talking to. Steve, who might just say 'yes' and then go through with it out of sheer stubborness and idiocy.

Bucky loves the guy, really he does, but every now and then, he wishes he could shake some sense into Steve, and some ... some whatever it is that makes Steve take on any people twice his own size without the least hesitation out of him.

"Wouldn't want you to get sick or something," Steve says, with a grin that by rights ought to have gotten him a girlfriend years ago.

Bucky smiles back, even if he's already thinking of a way to tell Steve he's sorry - when he roped Steve into riding the Cyclone, he really hadn't been aiming for anything worse than a good scare and a case of wobbly knees, perhaps. The kind of thing friends do to one another when visiting Coney Island.

"Tell you what - why don't I buy us some lunch?" Bucky proposes. It might do Steve good to have a bit of a sit-down, get some food back into his stomach.

Steve briefly closes his eyes. "Not hungry," he says, and then, when he opens them again to see Bucky frowning at him: "Really not hungry. Something to drink, maybe?"

Bucky knows a request when he hears one, rare as they may be, coming from Steve. "Absolutely."

.02 _Howard Stark_

"It just tastes like bread and cheese," Steve says. He sounds, Howard thinks, a little bit disappointed.

Possibly, it's the company. The first time Howard found this place, he figured it would be perfect for getting to know someone a little bit better, nice and warm and cozy. "Well, essentially, that's what fondue is, pal. Bread and cheese."

For lack of an open spot in Agent Carter's undoubtedly crammed social agenda, he's taken Steve. There might, Howard admits only to himself, be a certain element of apology in play.

It doesn't take a genius to see there's something special going on between Steve and Agent Carter, and Howard knows himself well enough to realize he's not really looking for anything beyond, well, someone to fondue with. So to speak.

Steve dips another piece of bread. He's managed not to get any cheese on his uniform so far, which is quite an accomplishment, given that it's his first time.

"Oh," Steve says. "I didn't mean I don't appreciate the invitation. It's a nice place. Thank you. Good cheese. Tasty bread." He smiles one of those smiles that make it hard not to smile back.

"You're welcome, bud," Howard says.

 

.03 _Peggy Carter_

She doesn't know where or when Steve's gotten his hands on a picture of her, but she knows that when the entire movie theater sees that Captain America is carrying her photograph in his compass, she's neither embarrassed nor annoyed.

Her job's never required people to not know her face, not really, and Steve is, well, Steve. She can get a bit cross with him for kissing another woman, but not for wanting to have his picture with her when he's off to keep the free world safe.

Colonel Phillips looks at her as if wondering whether or not he ought to duck for cover.

"I don't assume you knew about this?" He's probably heard about the incident with the shield - which is barely worth the name, really; Steve wanted to know about his shield and Howard had thoughtfully put an assortment of live weapons within easy reach - she's only done what either one of them would have done himself, eventually.

"What if I did?"

Phillips shrugs. "Kid's doing a pretty good job out there."

She turns her attention back to the screen for a moment. Steve is smiling straight into the camera, as if he knows she'll be seeing these images, eventually. "He is, isn't he?"

Phillips snorts and mutters something. She doesn't let it stop her from smiling back at Steve, even if there's no way at all he'll see it. "Next time, maybe make him a sandwich or something, instead of letting every German spy out there know what the Captain's girl looks like?"

 

.04 _Tony Stark_

Steve only leaves the kitchen for ten seconds, twenty tops - he has some vague memory of having spotted a newspaper in the living room, and even if it's probably an old one, it'll still be pretty new to Steve. He leaves his coffee and the sandwich he's made himself, because why not?

He wasn't really expecting to come back to find Tony having helped himself to Steve's breakfast.

"Um," Steve says, because he's still in Tony's house and he sort of feels that earns Tony a certain amount of respect, even when he's stealing Steve's food (which is technically _Tony_ 's food, Steve supposes; he's just put it together into a sandwich). "I was eating that?"

Admittedly, he hadn't actually taken a bite out of it yet. So _in theory_ , Steve supposes it's possible Tony simply walked in and assumed the sandwich was a left-over or something.

"You were," Tony says. "Huh. Well, it's pretty good." He's not saying it as if he's gloating or anything; Tony is a lot of things, but he's not the kind of bully Steve could have comfortably beaten up.

The word for Tony, Steve thinks, is _complicated_. "You know, I knew your father. Worked with him."

Steve means for it to be a kind of reach-out, a peace offering, maybe. He'd have loved to meet some of the people his own parents had worked with, thinks he might have gone looking for them, after the war. Too late now, of course.

Tony finishes Steve's sandwich. "I never did." It doesn't sound like an invitation to continue. "You want to make another sandwich, feel free. Just tell Jarvis when you use the last of the bread."

 

.05 _Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain_

Steve's not entirely sure what he's doing in an upscale restaurant in New York City - or rather: he's not entirely sure what _Captain America_ is doing here. Something to do with charity and Tibet and China, it appears, going by the snatches of conversation he's hearing here and there, and the posters on the walls.

There's a lot of people wearing the kind of clothes he's seen hanging in Tony's closet, that one time Tony'd gotten it into his head that Steve absolutely needed to borrow one of his shirts, for reasons as yet unknown.

Steve supposes he's lucky he gets to wear his uniform this time around.

"Look lively, champ," Tony tells him, without seeming to move his lips, smiling at the cameras. "What's the matter - you can't take the heat? Better get out of the kitchen, then."

"We're not _in_ the kitchen," Steve points out, mostly to have something to say.

Tony turns. It doesn't seem to stop people from taking his picture. "We could be," he says. "You want me to make it happen? You know what, that's a great idea, actually. Take a break, grab a bite - might as well get something out of this whole shebang, right?"

 

"You," the first man who spots Steve when he walks into the kitchen says, "what do you want? Except get out of that stupid costume, probably."

"I'm Captain America?" Steve says, earning himself a sneer.

"Don't mind Tony, he's always like that," the second and, it appears, only other man in the kitchen tells him, and it takes Steve a few moments to figure out 'Tony' refers to the man who's insulted his uniform, rather than to the guy who's convinced Steve coming here would be a good idea. "Eric Ripert."

Steve shakes the proffered hand. "Steve Rogers."

"I thought you said you were Captain America," Other Tony says.

"He can be both," Eric says. "Although I'm hoping Captain America might help me remind people this evening isn't just about food."

Of course, Steve's stomach chooses that exact moment to remind him he hasn't eaten anything since lunch. It's especially embarrassing because it's rather clear that there's no actual cooking going on anymore; Steve assumes all the food for the event has been prepared already.

Eric smiles. Other Tony scowls. "I'm sorry," Steve says, "I - "

"Want something to eat? Pretty sure we can whip something up for our honored guest." Eric grins. "What would you like? No promises - I don't think we've got any bull testicles around - " this, Steve assumes, is a joke " - but the basic stuff, no problem."

"A sandwich?" Steve suggests hopefully. "Only if it's not too much trouble."

"No trouble at all."


End file.
